Can we have an New Era for rewards?

[TheSisko]

I can get paid more for delivering bio-dung down the road then I can for destroying 12 pirate ships.

Six tons of LTDs sell for more credits then most mining missions pay with a 40-ish ton collection requirement.

Take this scientist 6,000Ly out the bubble to see Strong-G? Nahh, I'll take these business people 15ly down the road for x3 the credits.

Get into Top 10% for a galaxy-saving CG? LOL, let the galaxy burn while I'll crack open those Void Opal rocks over there.

You liked me killing enemy ships in a CZ and because were allies you wanna offer me a mission? Sure, for how much? .......no thanks, that's an insult, I'd rather haul bio-dung.

 

[Wolf Starslayer]

You get a new era of paintjobs and like it

 

[SpaceScania]

Yeah this is very true. Good post!

The credit rewards for various activities in Elite make no sense whatsoever. They do not encourage players to try different forms of gameplay. I don't even want to think about how many countless hours of combat, salvage, exploration, missions (of any kind), or space trucking it would take to earn me the ~$400 million credits I earn in like 2 hours of Painite mining in my Cutter. Nowadays earning credits is a chore that I do when I need money, then I go back to playing the game. That's kind of lame.

Before people get hot and bothered I am not saying that we shouldn't have ways to earn credits fast. But we should have more than one way to make credits in the game for the sake of variety. I never understood why gold rushes don't change from one kind of activity in the game to another over time. This would be very healthy for the game as it would encourage new CMDR's to try all aspects of Elite instead of just mining and hunting for engineering material.

 

[Stealthie]

Oh boy, have FDev ever painted themselves into a corner with payments!

Chances are that sorting it out is either going to cause epic salt production or we'll all end up with so many credits we'll need 128 bit computers to keep a count of them.

 

[TheSisko]

Mining missions in particular are worthless IMO now. Forget core mining, an hour in a LTD hotspot will out-pay every other mission I've seen in the last 12 months.

On my mission board now is a wing mining mission for 748 tons of water. Reward? 1.2M CR.

That's right.

Mine 748 tons.

For 1.2M CR.

Laughable. Utterly, laughable. Who on earth would do that?

One ton of LTDs can be sold for around 1.2M CR. One ton of Void Opals nets you 1.6M! But hey, ok gamey, I'll just get right on mining over 700 tons of water, I'm sure I can find three suckers mates who would love to wing up with me.

Don't even get me started on Search & Rescue. There was a proposed Fleet Carrier loadout for that......why? The pay sucks! I think its around 30K CR for an occupied escape pod, but yeah, I'm gonna spend billions of credits on a Carrier devoted to rescuing those poor lost souls, for 30K each. I'd be lucky to pay the Carrier maintenance costs and lucky if my SLF pilot didn't quit to earn credits elsewhere.

This whole reward system just needs to be overhauled. And I don't just mean credits. It would be great if you could find unique rewards while doing Search and Rescue, and more unique materials while searching for salvage. I haven't done any salvage/black box missions in over a year, there's no motivation for me to do so.

AtomicMegaNerd is right, we need better, more varied rewards (and frankly, bug-free missions) to moviate us to try out more types of game-play. And I don't mean rescuing 7 hostages from a T9 carrying over 400 tons of cargo.

 

[Red Anders]

Strong G is only about 1200 LY outside the bubble but your point is a good one I see missions now as being primarily a way to acquire engineering materials, increase rep or increase influence. The cash rewards vary from decent to awful, with many incongruous elements thrown in, so I have to assume that the credits are considered incidental these days.

To be fair, they are for me so I can't really complain - I'm sitting on over a billion in cash and about 4 billion in ships so it's not like making ten bob for scanning a surface data point is going to get me excited. Make it five MEF and I might be interested. Oh you did, cool.

 

[SpaceScania]

Don't even get me started on Search & Rescue. There was a proposed Fleet Carrier loadout for that......why? The pay sucks! I think its around 30K CR for an occupied escape pod, but yeah, I'm gonna spend billions of credits on a Carrier devoted to rescuing those poor lost souls, for 30K each. I'd be lucky to pay the Carrier maintenance costs and lucky if my SLF pilot didn't quit to earn credits elsewhere.

Yeah this is the country that gave us International Rescue and the Thunderbirds right? Search and Rescue should be a super amazing and lucrative career option in Elite Dangerous! I'd love to outfit a rescue Cheiftain and zip through the explosions and shattered ship hulls and angry Thargoid swarms while picking up poor human CMDR's who lost their ships. Don't even bother with weapons because the forces around are you too overwhelming. Survive on your wits and daring. Thunderbirds meets Elite! Make it happen Frontier. FAB!

 

[Kzak]

Depends on if the 2020 update introduces new currencies (materials are kind of a new currency in E: D already) or not.

 

[Tikanderoga]

Mining missions in particular are worthless IMO now. Forget core mining, an hour in a LTD hotspot will out-pay every other mission I've seen in the last 12 months.

On my mission board now is a wing mining mission for 748 tons of water. Reward? 1.2M CR.

That's right.

Mine 748 tons.

For 1.2M CR.

Laughable. Utterly, laughable. Who on earth would do that?

One ton of LTDs can be sold for around 1.2M CR. One ton of Void Opals nets you 1.6M! But hey, ok gamey, I'll just get right on mining over 700 tons of water, I'm sure I can find three suckers mates who would love to wing up with me.

Don't even get me started on Search & Rescue. There was a proposed Fleet Carrier loadout for that......why? The pay sucks! I think its around 30K CR for an occupied escape pod, but yeah, I'm gonna spend billions of credits on a Carrier devoted to rescuing those poor lost souls, for 30K each. I'd be lucky to pay the Carrier maintenance costs and lucky if my SLF pilot didn't quit to earn credits elsewhere.

This whole reward system just needs to be overhauled. And I don't just mean credits. It would be great if you could find unique rewards while doing Search and Rescue, and more unique materials while searching for salvage. I haven't done any salvage/black box missions in over a year, there's no motivation for me to do so.

AtomicMegaNerd is right, we need better, more varied rewards (and frankly, bug-free missions) to moviate us to try out more types of game-play. And I don't mean rescuing 7 hostages from a T9 carrying over 400 tons of cargo.

So much this.
Why would I mine water? That's something I've been thinking about as well. Why water? I get LTDs in the same spot as said water, and 1 is worth more than the entire mission pays - as you stated. So why bother? Roleplaying?
RPG: Yeah.... I'll mine that water for those thirsty souls on that station. I'll leave the LTDs where they are, there are thirsty people there, who think water from an Agri planet isn't good enough.
Said no sane person EVER!

The search and rescue is in some serious trouble. Drop in, collect stuff, get jump by 1D4 ships that you can easily gun down, collect some lousy payment.
Worth the risk? Not really.
Was it fun? Maybe once for hits and giggles.
Will you do it again? ...... hello? come back here!!!!!

Serious overhaul needed. Either better rewards or more interesting missions.
Oh wait, they are as generic as it gets.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

I can get paid more for delivering bio-dung down the road then I can for destroying 12 pirate ships.

Six tons of LTDs sell for more credits then most mining missions pay with a 40-ish ton collection requirement.

Take this scientist 6,000Ly out the bubble to see Strong-G? Nahh, I'll take these business people 15ly down the road for x3 the credits.

Get into Top 10% for a galaxy-saving CG? LOL, let the galaxy burn while I'll crack open those Void Opal rocks over there.

You liked me killing enemy ships in a CZ and because were allies you wanna offer me a mission? Sure, for how much? .......no thanks, that's an insult, I'd rather haul bio-dung.

Some of us arnt cracking open anything through lack of small seismic charges

the missions have always been madness wrapped up in a sheet of crazy, it would be nice if there were some order and balance to it all but thats never been in place since day one so i dont envisage it changing.

 

[Hanerib]

Search and rescue should have more content as a reward, like random messages, follow-up missions, clues to some obscure stories, sometimes minor faction effects.

Rare commodities prices should be made higher.

Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of dangers to mining? There should be more complexity instead of just going to a place, mining cargo hold full of void opals, and buying every ship in the game.

Kenneth, I remember asking in a suggestion thread mining should provide profitable adventures for small ships too, instead of the usual Cutter full of stuff making billions.

 

[Ian Skippy]

The credit rewards for various activities in Elite make no sense whatsoever.

Its a general balance issue. Rewards, risk, module parameters: none of it is in any kind of decent shape. It was okay'ish at launch in 2014, then things got haphazardly added and changed without any reasonable thought of the bigger picture. Now its just pure nonsense from any given angle.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Search and rescue should have more content as a reward, like random messages, follow-up missions, clues to some obscure stories, sometimes minor faction effects.

Rare commodities prices should be made higher.

Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of dangers to mining? There should be more complexity instead of just going to a place, mining cargo hold full of void opals, and buying every ship in the game.

Kenneth, I remember asking in a suggestion thread mining should provide profitable adventures for small ships too, instead of the usual Cutter full of stuff making billions.

Its why i am constantly harping on about small seismic charges, but its about access to content too in all ships, even though the returns as you highlight would be a pittance in comparison to a cutter.

theres always something every patch, From Robigo smuggling, rares, and then passenger mission, skimmers etc etc and now void opals, the problem is an angry crowd forms and FDev nerf it into oblivion rather than balancing it, which is why, rares are currently so dire, passenger missions are all bogus, and why no-one does skimmer missions any more. it gets nerfed everyone moves on to the next thing.

if Fdevs response is to nerf Void opals it will kill that too as time has proven.

its not just credits though, shield balancing, HP bloat, when ever that gets mentioned a mob appears, small ships were handed a nerf bat after captain anaconda had difficulty in a Haz Res and now we have condas more agile than eagles, the balance is a mess in every direction.

 

[Dagwit]

I wouldn't be shocked if 2020 turns out to be pretty much a complete reboot of the game, in which among other things the game economy is totally rebalanced.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

I wouldn't be shocked if 2020 turns out to be pretty much a complete reboot of the game, in which among other things the game economy is totally rebalanced.

& they have a separate server, i.e. everyone starts back at 0.

 

[Dagwit]

& they have a separate server, i.e. everyone starts back at 0.

Again, I wouldn't be surprised.

I do think they'd allow players to keep exploration data, though some finds might disappear if changes are caused by getting rid of the square blocks of stars currently in Stellar Forge.

And existing players might be allowed to bring forward cash assets, as happens now when players move between PC and console. But for the New Era that could be on a logarithmic basis, i.e.:

Got a million? Keep a million.
Got ten million? Keep two million.
....
Got ten billion? Keep five million.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

My personal favorite of "what - on earth - is wrong with these people?!" Missions :

- (Wing) Mine 15.260 tons of Water for 6.1M Cr

I'm like.... hahahaha.... nice try! What is this, an integrated "Idiot test" of some form to keep our Driver (Ship) license?

-------------------

Anyway, as so often with this Game, Balancing is pretty much off the hinges. But then, when wasn't it really?
It often feels like there's the whole team working on the mechanics for a Single Player Game - and all positions originally meant to service Balancing tasks (mechanics, income, progression, MultiPlayer/MMO) went vacant... and noone noticed.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Again, I wouldn't be surprised.

I do think they'd allow players to keep exploration data, though some finds might disappear if changes are caused by getting rid of the square blocks of stars currently in Stellar Forge.

And existing players might be allowed to bring forward cash assets, as happens now when players move between PC and console. But for the New Era that could be on a logarithmic basis, i.e.:

Got a million? Keep a million.
Got ten million? Keep two million.
....
Got ten billion? Keep five million.

yeah prob, peoples stats could be an interesting point too, not sure how happy id be losing my distance traveled etc.

in that economy transfer i would buy as many cutters with class 8A fuel scoops as possible and cash them back into credits once transferred.

i was more thinking of a genuine "new era" where cmdrs transfer over their "person" only but leave their whole assets behind, that way modules / engineering / credits et all can be balanced, perhaps a bonus of 5million for being an established CMDR regardless of wealth who knows.

 

[Dagwit]

i was more thinking of a genuine "new era" where cmdrs transfer over their "person" only but leave their whole assets behind, that way modules / engineering / credits et all can be balanced, perhaps a bonus of 5million for being an established CMDR regardless of wealth who knows.

Yes, I should have said "total assets as cash". And stats might be brought forward, and maybe ranks and permit unlocks.

And yes, the one thing we know for certain about the "New Era" is that Frontier have called it that. What if they mean it literally, and the new era is set twenty, fifty, or a hundred years into the future?

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Yes, I should have said "total assets as cash". And stats might be brought forward, and maybe ranks and permit unlocks.

And yes, the one thing we know for certain about the "New Era" is that Frontier have called it that. What if they mean it literally, and the new era is set twenty, fifty, or a hundred years into the future?

well.... if i cant have a Dolphin or class one seismic charges in this 'new era' --> maybe there will be a Dolphin MkII in 3400 with two medium hardpoints and all will be forgiven, but alas seismic charges will only come in large then just my luck!